Quick And Easy Project.....

I believe that a person must at all times surround themselves with things they find beautiful and that make them happy. Even when we do that just by adding special little touches to ordinary things we may use on a daily basis.

I stopped in a Michael's craft store today and found the most darling scrapbook paper. A shabby patchwork in the prettiest of colors. The paper is of heavier weight card stock and includes some actual stitching on it as part of the design. It was a bit more expensive than most of the papers, but still not too expensive.

Immediately, I knew what I could do with it.

I purchased just two pieces of the scrapbook paper and when I returned home, I used it to decorate a simple three ring notebook binder. The type that has the plastic pockets/slipcovers on the front, back and spine of the binder.

Trimming the paper to fit within the plastic slipcovers, I instantly transformed a plain simple white binder into something much prettier.

This would be a simple, inexpensive and fun idea to use for kids who are getting ready to go back to school and who may be required to keep a binder notebook as part of their school supplies. They could decorate them in any style they choose.

Digging through my scraps of paper I already had at home, I found the perfect paper to use in covering the spine of the notebook. Here again, I just trimmed it to size and slid it inside the plastic pocket.

A view of the front, back and side binder all in one.........

A fun little project for you to try if you so desire. Imagine a whole shelf filled with pretty "shabbified" notebook binders like these for your office or craft rooms. A perfect way to file away papers you may need or use on a regular basis. Just add some plastic sheet protectors inside to protect the papers and you're ready to go. This would even be cute used in the kitchen to file recipe's that you may have torn from magazines.

Well, now that I've finished my quick little project and shared the idea here with you, time for me to head out as I'm going to my sisters for a BBQ today.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll be back soon!!

What's Inside The Drawers ?????

Are you like me??

Do you always wonder what other people have tucked away inside their cupboards and drawers?

I honestly admit that I do. I've always been fascinated with seeing the insides of peoples homes to see how they decorate, what sorts of things they collect, what color choices they tend to gravitate towards and so on. I think this fascination of mine is why I just love watching the Home & Garden channel on TV and of course the world of Blogging. It gives me a chance to get glimpses inside the homes of others so I can be a bit of a voyeur and not have to feel guilty about it.

Well, being the way that I am, and I'm guessing that some of you are the same, I thought I'd give you a little peak into some of my drawers. These particular drawers belong to a small chest of drawers that I picked up at an antique sale many years ago. It was painted the ugliest color of mustard yellow, but a few coats of white paint totally transformed it into the perfectly shabby little chest.

When I first purchased this little chest, I was still living in an apartment and I used it in my bathroom to store my cosmetics and other items that one would normally find in the bathroom.

But now, I keep it my combined kitchen/dining room, both as an accent piece and for storage.

And hidden inside the drawers are some more of my vintage crocheted potholders (another portion of that collection is displayed in the oblong shaped wicker basket that sits on top of the chest) and some small desert plates.

The middle drawer holds a few more extra plates, some cloth napkins and some decorative eggs (one item missing from the drawer below is my tea cozy which at the time was being used for it's intended purpose of keeping the tea in my teapot hot while I was busy snapping these pictures).

I didn't get a picture of the contents of the bottom drawer as it was time for the scones to come out of the oven, but in the larger bottom drawer I keep a mish-mash of things, from extra silverware, dish cloths and a few other things. Just ordinary things that I used in my everyday life.

Well that's all for today. I'm getting hungry so it's time to start dinner. Enjoy the rest of your day. The weekend is just around the corner so hang tight until then.

Ta Dah !!!!

The transformation is complete.. Well almost anyways.

What started out as this......

Has now become this............

While a few of you thought that maybe it would be painted an Aqua color, which now has me thinking maybe I should have as that idea is very appealing, I ended up going with my old favorite standby color of PINK to transform my wicker tray. By making it PINK, it just fits in so well with so much of my other decor and looks right at home.

I myself love how it turned out. It's just as I imagined. "Ballet Slipper" is the color of the spray paint and it was so easy, taking just minutes to cover the dingy yellow color and giving a whole new look to my pretty new wicker tray. Once dry, a second coat completed the color change.

Now I have a pretty pink wicker tray to use in all sorts of ways. I could maybe use it for serving myself some tea....

Or for displaying a pretty faux cake...

Or maybe for holding some of my vintage crocheted potholder collection. The possibilities are endless.

In looking at my transformed tray, I felt that it was missing just a little something that would make the transformation even better, but what could that be?? Well, I think I know what would, but just haven't gotten around to finishing that last step. But... I can still share the idea with you.

I remembered that I had some decoupage scrap art papers tucked away somewhere, so I did some digging and found them, and discovered that I had the perfect piece to make the transformation complete. A scrap of embossed & die cut paper featuring a lovely rose bouquet. It is just the right size to add that final touch.

I just need to finish up my little make-over project by decoupaging the scrap to the bottom of the tray, letting it dry and then giving it a final coat of sealant.

So, what do you think?

This transformation was really fun and I've got the itch to find some other things that I can transform as well. I wonder what my next transformation will be. When I find out, I'll be sure to let you know.

Soon To Be Transformed............

Hello Girls....

How is your week going so far?

Mine's been good. I've taken a few vacation days this week and am having myself a nice long 4 day weekend, and I won't be heading back to work until tomorrow. I've been so lazy the past few days and haven't really done much, but I do have plans to try and get something done today. A little transformation as I'd call it.

I found this adorable sturdy wicker tray a few weeks ago at an antique shop that just reopened in the area. Same dealers, but in a new location just a few blocks away from it's original spot which they had to close after another business in the building had a fire which caused extensive smoke and water damage.

I normally love a soft shade of yellow, but there is just something about the yellow coloring on this tray that is just not right. It's hard to see from these pictures what I'm talking about, but it has sort of a grayish tint to it and it just doesn't look right to me...

So, I will be giving it a little makeover, either today or sometime over the next few days to make it more to my liking. And, it won't be yellow when I'm finished with it.

Care to guess what color it will be when I'm finished?

Stay tuned to find out ............

What Will A Dollar Buy You These Days ???????

Well usually not much, however.......................

On my last visit to a local antique mall, this is what a dollar bought me.......

Make that a dollar and seven cents if you add the sales tax...

A pretty vintage card box that I found tucked behind some other items on a shelf in the antique mall. The box was empty, but I didn't care. It is so pretty all by itself and with it costing only $1.00, I couldn't resist. Heck, I pay more for a bottle of pop out of the vending machine at work than I did for this lovely little box.

I just love finding little bargains like these don't you?

Have you found any cheap treasures for yourself lately?

Recent HomeGoods Finds.....

OK Girls...

I know most of you have probably seen this photo before of my messy but still pretty "I wanna be a crafter someday" table...

Do you see the two tiered metal basket towards the top left side of the photo?

Well, I bought that piece a few years ago at Target and just love it. For sometime I kept it in my kitchen, but after seeing so many baskets like these being used by fellow bloggers in their crafting spaces to hold some of their crafting supplies, I decided to move it into my office/craft room to store some of the bits and pieces I've collected. Well, it wasn't long before I decided that I wouldn't mind having another one just like it, but of course, just like it always seems to be, anytime I find myself wanting to buy something in particular, I can't seem to find them anywhere. Does that ever happen to you?

I searched high and low in all kinds of places where I thought I might be able to find another similar piece, including googling tiered wire/metal baskets on the Internet, but no such luck.

But my luck changed not too long ago, when purely by accident, I stumbled across a new to me blog, and lo and behold, right there before me on my computer screen, I see my dream basket being shown in the blog owners current blog post. Sadly, I don't recall who's blog it was, so forgive me for that. She mentioned in her post that she had just found her new tiered basket at HomeGoods, which of course just happens to be one of my all time favorite stores.

Well, I logged off my computer and hopped in my car as fast as I could and quickly made my way to my local HomeGoods store and I was beyond thrilled when I walked in and headed to the kitchen section and discovered a shelf full of these two-tiered metal baskets along with several other companion pieces. They came in both black and cream. My color of choice being the cream of course.. It is almost identical to the one I already have, but there are some slight differences.

They were very reasonably priced too at only $14.99 each, Whoo Hoo!! Yeah for me. With them being as inexpensive as they were, I ended up buying two of them. Who wouldn't if you found something you wanted very badly and knew that your chances were slim to none of ever finding something quite like it again and at such an affordable price.

I also purchased this smaller metal basket which has a pedestal base. I assume the purpose for this piece is to hold fruit, but I had other ideas for it.

Knowing that it would need just a little something to cover the bottom of the basket to prevent items from falling through the underside, I whipped up a little something real quick to prevent that from happening.

I measured the inner circle and cut a piece of thin cardboard in the size I needed. After doing, that I covered the cardboard piece with some pretty floral fabric. I used tacky glue to glue the fabric on the underside to hold it in place. It looks a bit sloppy from this view...

But turn it over and it's all nice and pretty on this side....

Just pop the fabric cardboard piece in place and "voila", a simple solution to covering the bottom of the basket to prevent items from falling through.

I do plan on finishing the bottom of that hastily created cardboard insert to make it look neater than it is shown in the photos here, but I wanted you to be able to see how I made it, so I took pictures of it in it's still unfinished state. I will also make one just like it for the two tiered basket as well.

For now, this basket will hold some of my paper flowers...

Whew!! That was a long post, but one I enjoyed sharing with you all the same. I should warn you that it's been about a month or so since I bought these pieces, so if you live near a HomeGoods store and were hoping you might be able to find one for yourself if you decided you wanted one too, my guess is that they've probably sold out of them already as their merchandise sells pretty quickly and they are constantly bringing in new things. If I hadn't been such a lazy blogger this past month, I would have posted about these weeks ago when your chances might have been a bit better at finding one. Sorry about that..

A Look Back............

Happy 4th of July my friends... Hope you are all enjoying your long holiday weekend so far.

It's very hot here in Minnesota today with a current temp of 90 with lots of sunshine and humidity. Got too hot being outside so I came indoors to cool off a bit, and realizing it's been quite a while since I last posted, I thought I would stop in to say hello and let you know that yes, I still am here. Haven't given up on blogging. Just being really lazy about it to be honest.

No red, white and blue to share today, so I thought that instead of posting something in those colors, I'd take a look back in my photo archives and pull out a few of my favorite photos to re-share with you. Of course, those would be some pictures showing my favorite colors of pink, pale greens, blues and yellows.

First up is one showing just a portion of my crocheted potholder collection.....

Next is a lovely china gravy boat with the prettiest of floral patterns set against a small patchwork table topper.....

Some gorgeous fabric pincushions that I purchased on Etsy some time ago......

And some of the sweetest fabric covered eggs also purchased on Etsy....

Last, but not least, a small collection of pastel flower pots.

Hope you enjoyed seeming some of my favorite things, whether it be for the second time, or maybe even the first.

Take care, be safe and enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!